people

Dr. Neil H Carter, Assistant Professor, PI of the Conservation & Coexistence GroupI am an assistant professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan. My research is highly interdisciplinary and utilizes field-based, quantitative, and conceptual approaches to understand complex feedbacks among people, wildlife, and ecosystems. I strive to conduct actionable research that advances science and informs decision makers on ways to conserve biodiversity while also sustain (and improve) human well-being. Research interests include: Complexity of socio-environmental systems, sustainability science, wildlife ecology, landscape ecology, conservation ecology, and human dimensions of wildlife management.

Current Conservation & Coexistence Group Members

Mark Ditmer, Postdoctoral Researcher, Human Environment SystemsI am an applied wildlife ecologist who is passionate about understanding how human decisions alter animal movement, behavior, resource use, and demography while utilizing emerging quantitative research approaches. I seek to develop new methodological approaches, often leveraging cutting-edge technologies, such as biologgers and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and combine data in unique ways to illuminate the mechanisms behind observed patterns in wildlife science. My current project focuses on utilizing novel anthropogenic light and noise data as a new lens to investigate how species space use patterns are influenced by these expanding sources of environmental disturbance.

Alexander Killion, PhD Student, Conservation Ecology (UM SEAS)I am interested in how humans make decisions when confronted with conflict with large carnivores, and how those decisions affect wildlife conservation. I strive to better understand feedbacks in human-environment systems, such as how actors are influenced by policy and in return how actors are able to shape policy. My work focuses on quantifying such relationships and integrating social information with fine-scale spatiotemporal wildlife data to identify the mechanisms driving human-wildlife conflict.

Tara Easter, PhD Student, Conservation Ecology (UM SEAS)I work to understand how various social, political, geographic, and ecological factors interact to affect wildlife conservation. My master's thesis examined the spatial distribution of mammalian richness and small-carnivore interactions outside of Gorongosa National Park in a multi-use area in Mozambique. For my dissertation research, I am studying the spatial patterns and processes of wildlife poaching and trafficking and the social and ecological drivers of those patterns.

Education:M.S. – Biology; Boise State University (2018)B.S. – Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation; North Carolina State University (2012)

Edward Leal Trout, MSc Student, Biology (Boise State)The research I conduct is focused on the frontiers of human-wildlife interactions. I am interested in questions of how animals use the landscape in the presence of human activity and the best ways of mitigating human-wildlife conflict. Depredation of livestock by carnivores such as wolves, cougars, bears, and coyotes is a serious and pervasive national problem costing both ranchers and predators. For my thesis, I am working with the Wood River Wolf Project and local sheep ranchers in the Big Wood River Watershed to address these issues. I plan to combine spatial use data from carnivores, their prey, and sheep herding to develop tools to inform future decision making by ranchers to lower both sheep and carnivore mortality.

Sarah Coose, B.S. Student, Research Assistant (Boise State)My research is directed at understanding how human activity and noise levels affect wildlife habitat use. I am interested in human-wildlife interactions and finding ways that humans and animals can coexist in the same habitat with minimal conflict. My current project seeks to understand how different types of human recreation and the noise associated with these recreational activities affects wildlife land use in the Big Wood River Watershed.